The ordinary-sized words are for everyone, but the big ones are especially for children.

Wednesday, 24 February 2016

Nuts and Bolts: poets' cornered.

Rhymes are a bit like parmesan: not an essential nutrient, but nearly always an extra delight.(HERE, by the way, is a recipe for parmesan ice cream. The recommendation, you'll see, is to serve it alongside a ramekin of pest - but exactly which sort of pest, sadly, isn't specified. Deep-fried rat?)Anyway, the fact is that most of us love a rhyme.Famously, there are a few words in English that have no rhymes. Orange is one example, and silver another.Now, as there's nothing at all to stop us making up words as we go along, there's no reason why this should remain the case. Why shouldn't the glimmering trail of water that leads to the setting moon be called a stilver, or a chip in your nail varnish a morange? As it happens, though, we don't even have to bother with making words up, because despite all rumours to the contrary the simply gorgeous word sporange describes a sac in which spores are made, and a chilver is a ewe lamb.This is a pity, in a way, because I really could do with a word for a chip in my nail varnish.I dance along the sparkling stilverIn my silken gownThough time will banish all the silverWhen the moon goes down.Word To Use Today: well, how about sporange or chilver? Sporange comes from the Latin sporangium, from spor plus the Greek angeion, which means vessel. Chilver comes from the Old English cilfor.